Their pass-and-move play was immense. I swore they had 13 or 14 outfield players - they always had three men to every AFC man.

They play beautiful football. Formations tend to be rigid, with a little bit of switching and covering... But they just seem to know where they should be - not geographically on the pitch as such, but more in relation to each other - and their opposition at any given time. It's not quite the great Dutch Total-Football - but it seems to be going that way...

They seem to roll and rotate into each others 'playing space' naturally... Amazing.

I'm sure you heard that I got a match ticket in the end. I bought a ticket for 200 Euros about 90 minutes before kick-off. I was with a incredibly-nice Spanish family who took me in, and looked after me in their end. I also got them on Facebook - as you know, I think the daughter had a thing for me!

Anyway, I thought the referee fucked us over. It was never a red, and he ended any hope of us getting anything, once he sent van persie off. It was so loud in there, I couldn't hear the whistle - depsite seeing the flag, but RVP certainly didn't see that go up!